Immanuel Kant

Life and work of a philosopher cannot be unravelled into separate strands. The true events of such a life are only thoughts. Kant has no other biography than the history of his thought. He lived most of his life in one city - Konigsberg, and never ventured beyond the fron­ tiers of East Prussia. He did not seek fame, he did not gain power; neither in living, nor in loving, did he encounter turbulence. He never married. Outwardly, Kant's life ran smoothly and uniformly. Perhaps it was more monotonous than the lives of other philosophers. That could not be said of the inner life, the life of the mind. There everything was wondrously alive. Daring ideas came into being, gathered strength, clashed with other ideas, yielded ground or ripened in the strife. Kant's thought roamed the continents, pushed beyond the confines of the earth, strove to the farthest reaches of the universe. His thought ix Immanuel Kant delved deeply into the human soul in order to know itself. It was in­ tense and dramatic. Almost all methods of modern philosophical enquiry are rooted in Kant. His ideas have undergone change, but they live on. A knowl­ edge of Kant's philosophy is a good introduction to the study of phi­ losophy in general. He teaches us to think independently.